Detox in Drug Rehabilitation Programs

Rehabilitation is a must-do process every person wishing to get rid of addiction goes through. In order to help those who are in need of help to overcome drug addiction, there are numerous rehabilitation programs available, with various conditions, regimes, length and intensity of treatment etc. The whole way back to healthy life normally includes four stages. They are intake (choosing an appropriate facility for treatment and making sure the facility and patient are good for one another), detox (process of cleaning one’s body from all toxic substances), rehabilitation (further, ongoing treatment process, including all ways of relapse prevention and changing patient’s mindset and behaviour towards anti-drug stance) and recovery (after-treatment, often lifelong process of staying away from drugs).

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the process of creating new rehabilitation programs and approaches is now so quick and diverse that it is much harder to even classify those. And it also means that there are much more treatment options and, therefore, much more chances for everyone to find one that perfectly meets their particular needs.

Drug rehabilitation programs are normally divided into inpatient (full-time presence in a treatment facility) and outpatient (partial presence in a treatment facility, usually a day or some part of a day) care. Both of these have a great benefit: detox, which is the first part of beating addiction, happens after professional supervision and as much controllable as possible. Not only has it much more chances to succeed, it also goes a lot easier due to alleviating severe withdrawal symptoms with special detox medication, such as methadone, buprenorphine, benzodiazepines, barbiturates etc. (though type of medication used always depend on the drug addiction in question!). The extent of symptoms’ harshness is defined by patient’s body measurements and metabolism, kind of drug one uses, time of abuse and dosage, and other addictions and/or mental conditions in place, if any.

It is extremely important to remember that detox is only the first stage of treatment, not the treatment itself. One always needs other kinds of help to overcome addiction. Therefore it is necessary that one wouldn’t try so-called ‘cold-turkey’ detox on one’s own (abrupt stop of drug usage without supervision or any extra support, medical or psychological). Cleaning one’s body from substances doesn’t mean addiction is left behind, and withdrawal symptoms almost always become trigger for taking another dose just to get rid of those.

Among other benefits of detox in drug rehabilitation programs are:

Ability to share responsibility with professionals and get immediate help and psychological support when necessary, making positive outcome of detox process and addiction treatment as a whole much more likely;

Being in closed, supportive community of fellows beating the same condition, supportive both itself and at particular moments, when necessary, ensuring general treating atmosphere;

Proof of seriousness of one’s intentions to recover, which makes it much easier to re-establish connections with significant people like family, partners, friends, colleagues etc.

Certain amount of extra confidence in positive outcome of treatment.

In order to ensure best possible treatment program, a patient also has to undertake certain measures. Firstly, it is vital to cooperate with doctors helping one to overcome addiction. One must give them all the required information about one’s addiction and any other problems truthfully and accurately to get the most suitable treatment plan possible. The more responsibly one takes rehabilitation process, the better care one gets.

Detox period may vary from a few days up to a few weeks depending on specific features of one’s addiction, such as length of drug abuse, type and dosage, combinations of drugs one consumes, general physical health etc. In a treatment facility one will always get medication to relieve withdrawal symptoms. Moreover, one may also be given medicines not only to alleviate those, but also to fix other conditions such as malnutrition, sleep disorders, mental problems or any other issues that may emerge due to withdrawal.

Another great benefit of detox in rehabilitation programs is that other stages of treatment will be mandatory to undertake. One will not be left alone to deal with psychological part of addiction right after successful detoxification. During rehabilitation stage patients of both kinds of care, inpatient and outpatient, are able to analyze what stands behind their addiction and work out certain measures to prevent risk of relapse at its first stages. Rehab centers offer individual, group or family therapy, creating environment that will increase probability of successful recovery at the end.

While such way of action is perfectly logical and may be preferred by absolute majority of drug addicts, there is often a grave obstacle that interferes with access to it. This obstacle is price. As drug addiction significantly decreases one’s way of life, affecting financial conditions along with others, very often people find themselves unable to pay for proper, reliable treatment program rehabilitation centers offer. It may result into whether prolonging of drug abuse or attempts to get rid of addiction on one’s own, that have little chance to succeed due to severe damage cold-turkey detox causes. However, this is not the reason to give up. Numerous centers in the US offer state-funded programs, aimed exactly at people unable to cover the cost of treatment. There are also faith-based rehabs available for members of certain communities. Therefore the most important thing to do is to not lose hope and continue to search for help taking all one’s personal circumstances into account.